5 teens killed in fiery Texas crash

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5 teens killed in fiery Texas crash

(CNN) — At the intersection of the two country roads, charred debris lies strewn haphazardly. The earth around it is scorched.

It is here, in this corner of Dumas, Texas, that a sport utility vehicle slammed into a gas tanker Sunday afternoon. The tanker’s flammable cargo sent both vehicles up in flames, seriously injuring the truck driver and killing all five passengers in the Chevrolet SUV.

All of those who died were teenagers.

The crash, coupled with another one in Warren, Ohio, the same day, highlight that motor vehicle wrecks continue to be the No. 1 killer of youths in the United States.

Such accidents took the lives of about a quarter of the 15- to 24-year-olds who died in 2010, according to the most recent numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

They outpaced the other top culprits: firearm wounds, homicides, suicides and accidental poisonings.

But the wrecks mask a broader improvement: Overall traffic fatalities have been dropping in a “historic downward trend,” according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In 2005, it tallied 43,510 traffic deaths; in 2011, there were 32,367, the lowest level since 1949.

In 2009, motor vehicle crashes were the 11th-leading cause of death. That marked the first time since 1981, when data were first available, that motor vehicle crashes were not among the nation’s top 10 causes of death.

It wasn’t clear where the teens were headed in the SUV when, authorities say, the driver, 16-year-old Jacob Paul Stipe, failed to stop at a stop sign.